The Criterion Collection

[belcherman]

Originally Posted by jw007

I never signed up for FilmStruck and never had any desire. I always believe that physical releases of films have a longer stored value than something digital or what you'd find on a streaming website. Though I fear that the future will be streaming, I will continue to invest in films on blu-ray and until they take away my blu-ray player from my cold, dead hands, I for one will be watching my movies that way.

Services such as FilmStruck allow me to sample a much larger selection of films than I could ever afford to own. For me, it's less about "stored value" than personal enjoyment. I buy films when I think I might want to watch them several times over the years (I'm sometimes wrong about that), or because I want the special features that come with the physical media, or because the film isn't readily available for streaming and I want to see it. In my world, there is room for owning physical media and streaming.

[RockyIII]

I bumped Cries and Whispers thread. That movie is weird but in a good way. Beautiful cast. Swedish women are stunning.
Amazing how slow the pace of a movie used to be back then!

[Hoke Moseley]

Originally Posted by filmbuffTX

Try hoopla.

https://www.hoopladigital.com

Thanks for that, buddy. Works with my library and they have some decent movies on there.

[DukeTogo84]

Hopefully this means Criterion will start giving us more titles on the physical format. They have been stockpiling a ton of great titles for their streaming service that truly deserve physical releases.

Come on Hideo Gosha films!

[StarDestroyer52]

Originally Posted by MifuneFan

How about some good news guys? The Film Forum will hae a one-week screening for Ozu's The Flavor of Green Tea Over Rice (1952), sourced from a new 4K Restoration, and being distributed by Janus Films.

https://filmforum.org/film/the-flavo...-tea-over-rice

So now that makes at least two Ozu 4K-restored films from Janus that have screened this year, the other being Floating Weeds. Hopefully a sign of things to come for 2019

I wonder if that means Tokyo Twilight and Early Spring aren't far behind. Shochiku has released region free versions with English subtitles.



I wasn't aware there were many Japanese studios that added English subtitles to films?

[cgpublic]

Originally Posted by belcherman

While I'm sure Criterion will work something out, somewhere, sometime, I'm going to miss those TCM offerings.

This, a thousand times this, for the thousands of Filmstruck customers.

I'd hate to be the bearer of bad news, but those who are anti-streaming fail to recognize that the revenue Criterion receives from streaming not only supports film acquisition, restoration and supplementary material, it also minimizes the risk of a physical media-centric customer demographic that is aging and shrinking in size by the day, much like the brick and mortar storefronts that once sold Criterion discs and are nearly gone.

Having a robust presence in the streaming space not only helps keep Criterion solvent, it's vital for the future relevance of the brand. The problem is Criterion on their own cannot support a streaming service, and as an independent, they may find themselves on the outside looking in as companies such as Verizon and AT&T seek to acquire, optimize and restrict content for their own platforms and related services.

At least we now know what you get without net neutrality.

[StarDestroyer52]

I wonder with the Filmstruck news if we see an uptick in Eclipse Series sets for the films that don't have the film elements for an HD release?

[Namuhana]

Originally Posted by hariseldon

Preliminary start date Nov 2- Dec 3 as leaked by a BN Employee on reddit. I'd say it's a pretty strong rumor given the last couple sales though note that the start date of July sale changed 3 times in the last 10 days

I went to my local B&N today and can confirm that these are the sale dates.

[noiradelic]

Originally Posted by StarDestroyer52

I wonder with the Filmstruck news if we see an uptick in Eclipse Series sets for the films that don't have the film elements for an HD release?

It's possible, but far more likely that Criterion ends up on another streaming service.

Some folks have wished for Criterion to launch a completely standalone streaming service, but after this experience they probably wouldn't, even though it was AT&T who shut Filmstruck down.

[thatguamguy]

This is at least the third streaming service to partner with Criterion, no doubt there will be another.

[Scottie]

Packaging images courtesy of Svet.

[koberulz]

Originally Posted by cgpublic

At least we now know what you get without net neutrality.

WTF does net neutrality have to do with anything?

[AaronJ]

Is anyone else having all sorts of trouble getting info -- or even correct info in some cases -- on their Criterion orders from their site? Because my order page is a total mess. And I have no idea what is going on.

IGNORE THIS MESSAGE

I got a response from Criterion that completely explained the problem -- I was the screw-up -- and they totally took care of it.

I'm such an idiot some times.

[regeyer]

Originally Posted by AaronJ

I'm such an idiot some times.

Recognizing the problem is half the battle.

[cgpublic]

Originally Posted by koberulz

WTF does net neutrality have to do with anything?

Well, you live in Australia, so you may not be aware of the US laws which govern the Internet. In a nutshell:

Net neutrality is the principle that Internet service providers treat all data on the Internet equally, and not discriminate or charge differently by user, content, website, platform, application, type of attached equipment, or method of communication.

Why is this relevant to Filmstruck? AT&T acquired DirectTV and Time Warner (HBO, Warner and Turner) with the intent so they can offer a vertically-integrated stack of delivery platforms to serve their own content in a manner that does discriminate and charge differently by user, e.g., an AT&T customer will receive Game of Thrones in some combination of superior format/faster delivery, cheaper and/or free, earlier or with exclusive content, as opposed to a Verizon or Comcast customer.

The issue for Filmstruck, and by extension Criterion, is that it is a combo of not presently large enough/customers not valuable enough, with the result AT&T is of the opinion it will not scale up or align with AT&T's growth strategy, i.e., entice customers to choose AT&T over Verizon or Comcast.

My hope/feeling is AT&T will keep the TCM brand as a shingle similar to HBO, recognizing it may only be available to AT&T subscribers.

My fear is that AT&T will eliminate TCM and related Warner archive content all together, because the content is not as optimal when viewed on mobile, which is where AT&T sees the future of content consumption, i.e., the majority of viewers will watch content on a personal mobile device, and TVs go the way of the dinosaur.

Where Criterion as a streaming service fits in all of this is a bit of a mystery. One fit worth exploring is a partnership with Apple and their new TV service.

[RockyIII]

There is no way I could watch something like what I am watching now (Cries and Whispers) on any streaming service! This is beautiful filmography!

[Gacivory]

Originally Posted by RockyIII

There is no way I could watch something like what I am watching now (Cries and Whispers) on any streaming service! This is beautiful filmography!

Then don't watch it through streaming service. If someone is holding a gun to your head demanding you watch something through streaming then just blink twice.

Also, the filmmaking on streaming isn't different than on home video, just the quality. Ingmar Bergman will still be the director of the movie no matter what platform its watched on.

[cgpublic]

Originally Posted by RockyIII

There is no way I could watch something like what I am watching now (Cries and Whispers) on any streaming service! This is beautiful filmography!

The content on Filmstruck looks and sounds great, and depending on the title, indiscernible from the Blu-ray disc. Besides, there is a wealth of films and supplements not available on disc.

The thing is, with a Filmstruck subscription, a viewer can sample the world's greatest cinematic works, discover what they like, and potentially purchase the discs they love. Very few people, and certainly not students or someone with a middle-class income, are going to drop thousands of dollars a year to blind buy films they have never seen.

Which is why most people get streaming wrong for those who are film aficionados. It's a complement to purchasing and collecting films because it allows you to discover more films, not a replacement.

[RockyIII]

Originally Posted by cgpublic

The content on Filmstruck looks and sounds great, and depending on the title, indiscernible from the Blu-ray disc. Besides, there is a wealth of films and supplements not available on disc.

The thing is, with a Filmstruck subscription, a viewer can sample the world's greatest cinematic works, discover what they like, and potentially purchase the discs they love. Very few people, and certainly not students or someone with a middle-class income, are going to drop thousands of dollars a year to blind buy films they have never seen.

Which is why most people get streaming wrong for those who are film aficionados. It's a complement to purchasing and collecting films because it allows you to discover more films, not a replacement.

So it would be like sampling from the menu, that makes sense

[flyry]

Originally Posted by ShellOilJunior

I'd like to see Criterion partner with Amazon for a new channel. Amazon is pushing to get as much content as possible in 4k. Naturally, 1080p would be available, too. This would be a good partnership and the cost would be reasonable.

Of course they can include it for free with Prime, too, but that may not be reasonable.

Please no Amazon has the worst UI ever